Uzbekistan

A kinkajou, 1886. The Pentagon announced that civilian casualties in Iraq had increased recently by more than fifty percent, and death squads were said to be torturing and killing as many as 1,800 people per month.New York TimesAt least 200 Iraqis were killed in bombings, rocket attacks, and shootings, as were 19 American and British soldiers.CNNNPRU.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales visited Iraq to encourage “the rule of law,” andicasualties.orgNPRReutersReutersReutersSapa-AP via Independent OnlineReutersReutersAP via Houston ChronicleU.S. Secretary of DefenseDonald Rumsfeld quoted Georges Clemenceau, who said, “War is a series of catastrophes that results in a victory.”Washington PostIran ignored a U.N. Security …

The United States was investigating claims that someone flushed a copy of the Koran down a Guantánamo Bay toilet. In Afghanistan, news of the flushing led to riots, where hundreds chanted “death to America” and at least fifteen people died.BBC NewsNewsweek, which published the original report of the Koran desecration, retracted the story but pointed out that similar behavior has been widely reported.BBC NewsConnecticut held its first execution in forty-five years,Reutersand a Holocaust memorial opened in Berlin. Some people were upset that it only commemorated the deaths of Jews.ReutersThe White House and Capitol Building were evacuated for a few minutes …

A papyrologist at Oxford University announced that new techniques in spectral imaging, which make it possible to decipher previously illegible ink on papyrus fragments, have yielded parts of a lost tragedy by Sophocles, a novel by Lucian, and an epic poem by Archilochos; researchers also applied the technique to third- and fourth-century manuscripts of the Revelation of Saint John and discovered that the number of the beast, contrary to popular belief, is 616, the area code of Grand Rapids, Michigan.National PostA Washington woman found a snake with legs,Tri-City Heraldlocusts plagued Bangladesh,NZHeraldand Zimbabwe was at risk of famine.ABC News OnlineMore than …

â€śEight months pregnant I told an old woman sitting beside me on the bus that the egg that hatched my baby came from my wifeâ€™s ovaries. I didnâ€™t know how the old woman would take it; one can never know. She was delighted: Thatâ€™s like a fairy tale!â€ť

â€śBetween 2007 and 2010, Albanyâ€™s poverty rate jumped 12 points, to a record high of 39.9 percent. More than two thirds of Albanyâ€™s 76,000 residents are black, and since 2010, their poverty rate has climbed even higher, to nearly 42 percent.â€ť

â€śWe think we are the only people in the world who live with threat, but we have to work with regional leaders who will work with us. Bibi is taking the country into unprecedented international isolation.â€ť

Photograph by Adam Golfer

Ratio of money spent by Britons on prostitution to that spent on hairdressing:

â€śShelby is waiting for something. He himself does not know what it is. When it comes he will either go back into the world from which he came, or sink out of sight in the morass of alcoholism or despair that has engulfed other vagrants.â€ť